Dominica among 10 least visited Caribbean countries

Dominica has been named as the fourth least visited country in the Caribbean, according statistics from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

Most of the islands that made up the list are smaller territories which represent just seven percent of the stay-over visitors to the region.

According to latest statistics from the CTO, Dominica recorded 78,277 stay-over arrivals or 0.40 percent of the total Caribbean arrivals.

The least visited country is Monsterrat with 7,202 or 0.04 percent of Caribbean stay-over tourists.

The highest number of stay-over arrivals in Dominica occurred in 2006 when 84,000 visitors came to the island.

It dropped to as low as 73,000 in 2011, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

The low volume of visitors to Dominica is an issue that has not escaped the attention of the local travel industry. Consultants who attended a tourism summit here in 2013 said Dominica must increase its stay-over visitors to 90,000 by 2015 if it is to remain sustainable in the tourism industry.

The Discover Dominica Authority has set a goal for achieving that number of stay-overs by 2015. To reach the goal the island must increase its rate of stay-overs by seven percent per year.

It has been described as “very tough” by director of tourism, Colin Piper.

The most visited country in the Caribbean is the Dominican Republic with a total of 4.6-million stay overs. Cuba is in second place with 2.8-million visitors, followed by Jamaica with just over 2-million.

All the countries who made the most visited list are larger territories which, over many decades, invested heavily in their tourism infrastructure.

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Interestingly, among the four least visited, none had International airports until recently when St.Vincent got theirs after crooking us. Need I say more? Hence another reason why Change is a must and Piper needs to find a new job.

As a Dominican living about I can tell you that many people do not take dominica seriously because we haven’t got a clue or the infastructure to organise the island or ourselves sadly. Shame really as the island has many things that could and should be used to draw in big crowds of tourist. If this was in the States or Europe it would be used as a regular destination. The Island has to reinvent itself as a serious vacation option.

Why not focus on becoming the island known for educational facilities?? We have examples with two successful medical universities as well as DA State College. We need to attract additional universities and technical schools, place these campuses in strategic areas around the country in order to spur development. Why not try and replicate the development that has occurred around Ross U in several other regions of the country by bringing in additional schools. It is highly unlikely DA will have the funds to finance the building of a international airport anytime soon.

I am a dominican,leaving abroad, i love dominica, dominica is beautiful, we as dominicans we have to stop putting down our island, let us highlight the beauty of what we have, the lakes, the hot springs, our beautiful hikeing trails, our great waterfalls. our dive sites. what guests are looking for is great experience and to feel safe. I have working in the tourist business for fifteen years, and service is most important. I speak to people from all over the world, when i tell them that i am from Dominica, i get the same reaction, dominican rep, but when i describe my island they are very facinated. Lets promote dominica in Europe, they love nature, lets be different, lets promote what we have, tourists are always looking for something different. Go blees D A.

This is no suprised to me. Becaue it is cheaper to fly from NY to SM than it is from SM to Da? So why should people who travel on a budget these days pay more to go to Dominica?? There is no night life there anyways!! Those politicians need to get off their @#$ and make serious plans to improve air access to Dominica.

I will repeat myself you guys are wicked once again to have ideas on how to move DA forward yet you are prepared to let your own country sink to hurt the current Government. May the good Lord forgive you all. Remember if DA is sinking you will all sink or those of you who can will run away when the ship is going under. I despise evil wicked people. By the way who carried out the survey and besides DA has never had a history of stay overs but you know what let us go ahaed and blaim Skerrit for that every thing in DA despite the fact that things were inherited blaim him. have we got the capacity to house hundreds and thousands of people no. Who invest in hotel ordinary people not government why don’t you people direct your anger at the people with money to build or start with small guest houses and that will attract over stayers. Buy land in Coptol near the hot and cold springs Sa ka Fe Zor sort zor sort

When I am out and about in London and on tv I see adverts for St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados, Jamacia, even St. Vincent. Where is Dominica? Right now on the trains is ads for Bahamas. You have to spend to make people. The only time we featured in the newspaper is when they had to put their article on countries that homos are not welcome. ADVERTISE!!!!!!!!! And when i tell people i am from Dominica and they book their flight thinking its there they going, they end up in Dominican Republic!!!!! BIG PROBLEM THERE. DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE NAME OF THE COUNTRY IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO ADVERTISE AND IF YOU ADVERTISE MAKE IT CLEAR THAT IT IS NOT THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. I myself finish advertise Dominica.

Mr Skerrit and His failed government should take a bow for killing everything in Dominica….. Who wants to visit Dominica when this failed party continues to bring down the country lower and lower each day? The government, especially Mr Dauglas- as tourism minister should be ashamed. Let them deny the truth right now…… Longtime, since this government came into power, folks just dont have interest in Dominica. Not even Dominicans overseas love coming to Dominica, because the truth is every year the country is getting worst and more backward…… One of the poorest countries in the Caribbean, and one of the least visited countries go hand in hand……. All the supporters of this failed government, don’t even know that they are keeping their children and the future generation behind……… Pooooooooor Dominica………. Mr Skerrit blame linton for this one, or did the folks who gave the report plagiarised stuff.? You should imitate the developmental plans of the prosperous countries in the Caribbean, instead of this AlBA and Uncle Chavez talk………….. Time to get rid of Mr Skerrit and his failed government…… Another term with them in power will be last rights for Dominica…. Its will be RIP Dominica…. Time will tell, for Dominicans and Dominica……. Things were good under Mamo, UWP but with labour Party Dominik bien pweeeeeeeeeee… Sheddddddding Tears for my Country! Dominicans should be crying all now….. Tears Tears Tears…………………………………….

Aright so where is Ian and Dem man-dem dat still going to look for money to invest in Tourism sector,,,

From time Marn been telling allyou people All dem other Islands is where people want to go, it’s a very very small selected few that want to come Dominica and want to see what Dominica have to offer, and them other islands dem still suffering from all this tourism stuff,,,

For years growing up Marn have seen Dominica provide these neighboring islands with food, that’s what Dominica is there for so is about time Dominicans start seeing the light,,,

Stop looking for International Airport, 5 star Hotel and the likes and let us focus on what we knows best, Agriculture!!!

That is what iIwill continue to say what work Discover Dominica Authority is doing Just foolish seminars traveling to promote Dominica and everything gets worse and guess what big big salary piper should just resign

Dominica has some major structural issues that are difficult to solve. 1. High energy prices prohibit foreign direct investment. 2. Lack of proper ferry terminal or airport capable of accommodating large numbers of people. 3. Not one recognizable hotel chain. 4. No golf courses. 5. No night life at all. 6. Very expensive compared to its neighbors

Someone wrote a post referring to the immigration needing to get some training. Kindly give me a minute of your time to share this story. Can you imagine, I arrived in Dominica and entered the nationals line. I am a citizen by decent. When it was my turn I presented my Dominica passport to the immigration officer, can you believe the officer asked me how long I am staying, so I looked at him amazed. Besides having a Dominican passport I’ve automatically earned a caricom citizen 6 months stay. I’m going back in due time and if any officer ask me such a foolish question I will not answered. Please officers go and learn the RULES.

My experience exactly. When you leave your own country they want you to fill in a long form, stamp your passport and when you return they do the same in reverse. Why?? I am a citizen of Dominica and it should be sufficient for me just to show my passport, especially now that we have electronic scanning equipment. In developed countries like the U.K. you can print your boarding pass at home and pass it over a scanner to let you into the security area without passport control. Are we behind or are they behind?

A lot of people here have mentioned that there is a lack of awareness of our existence.

it just occurred to me that I have seen so many infomercials on TV particularly late at night pedalling all kinds of junk. Why can’t the Ministry of Tourism buy some TV time the same way as the people who sell all that junk on late night TV when that time is cheap?

This time they rob us weee. Monsterrat.. Shouldn’t be in race and should have competed in the special Olympics. Anguilla is the size of Ports mouth Magness that is not fair.Boy if we didn’t have that creole festival we would have been before St Vincent. Papa Bondieur now we have chance to be “FIRST” IN SOME THING they put two contestants that shouldn’t be in the race and the judges say St Vincent T shirt cross the line before ours. With St Vincent opening up their international airport we will mash them up next year and come first that if we don’t discard of the chief speech thief and his staff of imbeciles

Maybe you should commence genuinely praying for Dominica with a loving, humble and contrite heart and for the Chief. You are doing too much criticizing. It does not help Dominica one bit. Try doing something constructive for Dominica to improve this situation. Our Sisserou emblem, the beautiful parrot on the T Shirt is captivating and could surpass anyone of them.

However I say it I speak the truth. I am not the one who had been lying to the people and trying to put paint on rotted canvas. If eople like you had not been condoning and supporting the deliberate lies and plot to cover up the woes of our economic system , and the mismanagement of the country today you would not be asking Lang Mama to spin. Ang Mama will never spin be it Linton, Skerrit or anybody else. You can count on that. I will call it as it is.

Dominica needs a good hard challenging 18 hole golf course there is room for one. A small one could be at the Botanical Gardens for cruse ship tourists pressed for time. There also needs to be a helicopter service to shuttle people all over the island on sight seeing especially for tourists that are not physically capable of walking a lot. With a very good challenging golf course the PGA may even be interested on holding tournaments in Dominica with the proper advertising.

Golf course designers visited in 1998, 5-Star hotel plans were completed for Pointe Baptiste in 1997 – Mr Napier flew in from France to sign the land purchase agreement. When the financiers called back from the US they were laughing at the island. They had visited the island three times! We offered them nothing that they could not obtain elsewhere, more cheaply and speedily! Investors want returns on their investment and are not in the charity business. Trust me, I was the engineer for the projects.

When we have politicians fighting each other yr round and we have ppl dat thinking they can stop sin from happening so they barring casinos n adult entertanment from setting up shop in dominica n we have ppl that crying down international artiste from playing in a third world country that when you watch there schedule they performing round the globe, how d hell to the u expect us to have a high tourist arrival, so let’s stop blaming the government for every thing negative thats affecting the country n let’s start to do our part as a people

Keep Dominica Christian and free of such types of entertainment. There is ample sin in Dominica. It does not need any more of that. The government should do its utmost to prohibit such types of entertainment. Morality should be preserved at all costs and as best as we can. Think also of the youths that their minds and future lives may not be tarnished.

Look at the political strategy of the DLP. In May of this year Ian Douglas said that the Cabrits Resort & Spa will be completed in the first quarter of 2015 which is the year that begins the next term for next government. We really need a modern resort in Dominica but his political party is using politricks to brainwash the people of Dominica again with a “gift” from another country. The project began in October 2011 and was supposed to be completed by 2013 but according to him it was plagued by a number of setbacks. But now all a sudden it will be completed in 2015 in.Skerrit’s final run. Now the DLP is taking about building an international airport. All

Hey Jokers. Here are the problems Colin Piper — Full of himself with no interest in the product Tourism just look at him. If i was an American or European i would not come here when i know that the Prime Minister Don’t like us and call us imperiallist and Degrade us in the name of Alba we are doomed.

How credible is our govt.? Should we take our Min. of Tourism at his word? The groundbreaking for this hotel took place nearly three years ago, on 12 Sept. 2011 with an estimated completion time of, 18 months i.e. by end March 2013 DNO report 29 Sept. 2011). During a site visit in 2012 Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit vowed that it it would be completed by Oct 2013 “and not a day later”. (DNO report 12 Nov., 2013) Here we are, almost three years after the project was started and it is still far from complete. You could be forgiven to think that this is because of our bad economic climate but remember, this hotel is not funded by ourselves but by the kingdom of Morocco in the form of a straighforward gift. What happened to those funds? It would be understandable if Roosevelt Skerrit is no longer flavour of the month in the royal court of Morocco.

Dominica is a beautiful island with numerous tourist attractions (including great beaches – both black and white sand – how many other islands can claim that?).

Unfortunately, the biggest problem with the island’s tourism marketing is called AWARENESS…or lack thereof.

I would bet that if you asked 1,000 people in the UK, Sweden, Canada or the USA “Where is Dominica?”, 90% or 900 people would not know the answer…or else would say “Oh, you mean the Dominican Republic?”. NO!

Current tourism marketing has NOT done the job of creating awareness for Dominica as a beautiful and unique Caribbean tourism destination. If no one has heard of the place, how will they ever consider this island as a Caribbean tourism destination?

I know economic times are difficult, but please DDA consider investing your small budget on programs such as “Travel Channel” or “Discovery”. Sponsor one programme for one week and the benefits could be incredible!

Would it not be nice to reach hundreds of thousands of potential American or worldwide visitors with a focused advertising message?

Concentrated yes…expensive yes…but probably more bang for your buck than you will ever receive! Please put Dominica on the Caribbean tourism map…there is so much more here!

That’s one of the biggest problems people confusing the Republic with the Commonwealth, you would be surprised to know how many people in the United States think that the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed in the Dominica Republic instead of the Commonwealth. Even that episode of Man Woman Wild people got the islands confused. The US mail even gets confused. Maybe there should be a referendum to change the name of the Island. Still, I blame the media. I have tried to call out the mistakes on tourists but it seems they do not care.

Comparing Anguilla to DA is like comparing apples to oranges It is a well developed resort, easy to get to and is of advertised extensively by outside agencies. The resorts are exquisite and heavily financed by outside corps. We have the goods but we need to stay out of bad publicity . We are our own enemy.

The most painful thing about this report is not just the fact that Dominica falls 4th place of the least visited Caribbean Islands, but the fact that this DLP Government of Roosevelt Skerrit literally killed agriculture, which was our number one breadbasket, while they with mouth service gave fools the impression that their new emphasis was in tourism. But then again who wants to come to Dominica now a days? Not even those Dominicans that turned their backs on Dominica for years and only visit when they get a free ticket and money from Skerrit to come vote him in

Amen! Ask them again. How do they expect people to stay over night when by 4 pm the entire country goes to sleep? All you hear are crickets chirping and dogs barking. Very few or no forms of entertainment .

People do not want to stay over when there are no street lights at night. Who wants to fall in holes? Also, where is the night life? We need things to do at night other than watching TV and going to bed by 10:00am.

The issue is not the international airport or lack thereof. The issue is lack of marketing to the appropriate target market.

Dominica does not cater to the sun, sea and sand tourist. Therefore our product (nature, hiking, diving) needs to be more effectively marketed. Also the DDA goes to the same trade shows year after year…it’s time to step out of the box and expand the horizons. Do more research, market in more countries.

There are so many nations off the beaten path with no international airport and more of a hassle to get to then Dominica, yet they get higher numbers. Dominica needs to be marketed as an exclusive island to give the added allure.

A lot of Dominicans seem to think that an int’l airport is going to solve all the problems on island. Guess what…it won’t. Do you all know how costly it is to maintain such a facility especially when you don’t have enough flights to service said facility? Many airports in the Good ole US go dark after 6 because of lack of flights…Dominicans need to wake up and realize that the Gov’t CANNOT do everything.

Me again, Dominicans need an overhaul in customer service,We do not know how to treat people, COURTESY, RESPECT, LESS INTERFERING AND WARMTH. Customs and immigration are the first groups which need a crash course in dealing with people. And yes you can bring a horse to water but what you do will depend on whether it drinks.

I have to say,Yes Dominica is a beautiful little island but there’s not to much to do when you get there.My kids were there and they were bored to death.Getting to Dominica is a hold other story.Hopefully things get better.Praying.

Adults could feel the same way. Your children probably missed their friends and TV viewing. In this case, those who visit D/ca should know what it is all about. Dominica should be a place of rest from the hectic life of a big country. Go sightseeing and swimming. Then late afternoon and in the evening, it should be time to have a good family conversation and discussion, something which could be lacking residing in a big country.

Why would anyone expect us to attract vast numbers of tourists? Dominica can never be a mass-market destination, with or without an airport that can handle larger planes. We are a niche market and that’s by far the best market to be in. Yes, we can do better than we are doing right now but more than anything, we should value and conserve the treasures we possess and make sure we don’t destroy them for the sake of numbers.

your comment is a master piece, quintessence of Dominica ideology – complete denial of reality and inability to assess critically world around you and yourself…Mustique Island, St Barts and a few other are niche tourism island..those islands are in the best tourism markets…Dominica is in hundreds of light-years from them in terms of development. So please continue to conserve national treasures and suffocate economy development, population development and continue to move from 3rd world country ranking into next level also known as 4th world ranking ..and all this in the name of what?

It’s silly to compare Mustique with Dominica – or any other Caribbean island come to that. Mustique is not a tourist destination – it’s a private gated community for the obscenely wealthy who visit their multi-million dollar homes for about 3 weeks a year. As for St Barts; it has a number of good beaches and extremely high quality accommodation and services. Dominica would struggle endlessly to fit into that market, which is basically white, French and chic. In fact, why would we even attempt to be “like” other islands? The reality is that we can’t and we would fail. What we should do is be ourselves by retaining our uniqueness, improve our customer service and protect our most valuable asset which is pristine nature. Once we lose that we’re finished, because we have nothing else to offer that would make us competitive.

Thanks for the reality check! It’s amazing to see the excitement in some of the comments because it looks like bad news about Dominica.

Thanks for the reminder that just like human beings, countries are blessed with different attributes. Ours are different from Antigua’s and some of the others which might tend to attract a different kind of tourist who may not be in the majority, hence your valuable point about niche marketing.

I also think that we need to develop areas where we have the competitive advantage and I don’t necessarily mean in tourism because I do not remember us ever being a leader in that sector, (alleged bad government or not). I mean water, agriculture, geothermal energy etc.

I was very surprised to see Antigua listed among the least visited islands in the Caribbean. I have seen adverts on the CNN channel from the Antigua Minister of Tourism and they are probably doing something similar in Europe, so I’m not sure how much higher they could go in terms of marketing. I believe Tourism is the base of their economy so I was really surprised, perhaps even shocked to see them so listed.

So, those who are excited please temper your excitement because I really do not think that you are doing a favour to the people for whom you think you are rooting. You are actually setting them up for some serious problems with the unrealistic expectations which you all are building. Watch it my friends!

Perhaps you did not notice Dominica had little more than 78000 visitors and Antigua had more than 243000. On the list of Least Visited or not they are doing 3 times better than us with a samller island and smaller population. There are thousands of our nationals finding work there. That is what should concern us and shock us

its predictable and easily explainable result…all top tourist destinations are marketed by international hotel chains and travel agencies, which opinion matter for local governments. There are no international firms operating in Dominica for reasons you know very well – its nightmare to make business here and government kills any foreign business which dears to compete with local hotels. So prospects for tourism development is low (honestly zero)…of course some boutique hotels can make good money but mass tourism with mass employment opportunities for Dominica..you can kiss goodbye for that! …and honestly Dominicans as group of people as nation are not ready to provide services: you dont like foreigners at all, you perceive foreigners as walking wallets, you treat women badly (same way as your own women), sanitary standards are stone age, prices high, services expensive etc etc etc Maybe honest answer is that Dominica isn’t tourism destination for next decades and try to make something different like agriculture or fishing etc and hope that in 50-70 years you will have a better generation of Dominicans here which will be thankful for foreigners and treat them as guest with respect and without cheating since minute 1 they arrive at Melville Hall

This is very encouraging of our tourism package actually. Though St. Kitts beat us by over 20K visitors. We have to be mindful, that they have supposedly a major airport and have a, or a few mega resorts. Imagine if we had a taxing major airport. However, the question people need to answer, if we build it will they come? Airports are normally used for for the greater part for citizens of a country to enter and exit their country for business or for whatever other reason. Tourism should be the least of all our worries. We need to have a diversified economy and not one that is dependent on an industrialized country doing well and waiting with hands out hoping that they would pay us a visit. What is actually needed are lower travel prices, better infrastructure, education for the advancement of our citizens, 1st class health care and skilled jobs for our educated citizens. Mass tourism can be poison, because most of the wages are low paying and called for an unskilled labor force. Our Citoyens need to reach for the stars and not a mop.

We need a proper airport that works and taking more international flights. It’s really frustrating when I have to come all the way from Europe and can’t come to Dominica straight flight. Most flights don’t even go there. That alone is a major turn off.

This is a tough pill to swallow. I do not see any meaningful solution to increase this number to the suggested 90,000 stay-over visitors. You first need to entice tourist to visit, then you must get them there efficiently and economically with accommodations to boot. Our ferry terminal sucks, we do not have a proper airport nor any night life whatsoever. Much work needs to be done.

We should note that none of the countries heading that list enjoys the luxury of an international airport? Does that not send a serious message? I am sure Dominica will go past St. Vincent very soon because they are already building theirs.

read what you wrote, most of the countries on that least,almost all except obviously Dominica and a couple others… have international airport… and international airport does not equate always busy and loaded with people… e.g. was in Puerto Rico and at nights it’s literally a ghost airport…

Anguilla, monserrat, st vincent(at the time of the survey) and dominica does not have intl airports. Hence the reason for bottom place finishings in terms of tourism arrivals. St vincent will soon overtake us when their intl airport comes on stream this yr. Hence there is adirect co relation between an intl airport and stay over arrivals.

derp – what is your point? The airport in SJU is NOT and international airport – that means that flights depart and leave at peak times – the point is they have one – SMH – when will you people ever learn…

well I mean you have to walk close to the entire walk way to get all the way to the Liat terminal which they hide behind Jet Blue back, came from a flight to Miami on American Airlines, so don’t see your point the whole airport Puerto Rico was a ghost down, walked all along in search of food, so meh, had to go back to the hotel where we overnighted to find food… then again once you land in the Caribbean expect Caribbean service so ye…

and @Evolved… “The airport in SJU is NOT and international airport” what are you trying to say… it is international…, and anyways of course at peek times they will be busier than others, I’m being general and saying that most people thing international airport = allows peek flights day and night… the main problem with Dominica is the marketing, the marketing SUCKS some people even think Dominica and the Dominican Republic are the same countries… but hey, I like international airports,,, I’m tired of Liat nonsense and the other small airlines…

I agree with you. This geographical error is made because Suriname was part of the Dutch possessions that included the Netherlands Antilles and Guiana for the same reason because it was historically grouped under the British West Indies.

Piper needs to go…I stand firm on this…the man walks like he is asleep……this cannot be someone in charge of marketing the island…..

BUT

The gov is partly to blame…….where is the moneys being invested? NOT IN TOURISM!!!! If you do not want to spend to market the island effectively and position the island effectively how do you expect ppl to come. The gov gives 0.04cent on every tourism $ back to tourism ……tell me how many visitors can a country trying to market and position itself on practically no money budget……

Examine what the other islands like SLU ANU and JA are investing in tourism.

At pffff you are so right piper really needs to go .I have always wondered about this piper man .I wonder if he is from Dominica if he is not from Dominica then what do you all expect of course he wont promote Dominica the way he suppose to .

My comment is directed at you. Break down the number of visitors to Dominica even further to determine what percentage of that number actually stays in paid forms of accommodation.

What percentage are tourists vs those who are returning to visit friends and family?

I The number might be even more alarming.

It is also interesting to note that the highest level of arrivals were recorded in 2006 – one year before the NDC – Division of Tourism was disbanned! Wasn’t the new DDA suppose to make things better? Wasn’t the great and might Yvor Nassief suppose to have cleaned, remove dead wood and employ dyamic professionals to move the country forward?

Oh I forgot – the dynamic Colin Piper was his replacement – what a joke!

That’s no surprise. …if u weren’t from Dominica people really why would u ever want to go to Dominica. .i live in the states and when i say am from Dominica people ask where is that , is that a country or did I mean to say dominican republic. .

Ur talking pure horse manure…. we have more to offer than many other varibbeab countries… wat we dont have is a proper marketing strategy. thats y so many people dont kno the difference between dca and dca republic.

By the way i findur openning statement very unpatriotic… u sound like someone who lived in miseh and finally stoway to the states.. no wonder u wud not want to return

I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic earlier this year. We cannot support that type of mass tourism. Instead of focusing on the pure numbers, we need to focus on the quality of tourist we attract.

There are many reason why we do not want large numbers of tourist traipsing through our country. Let’s try to attract people who have money to spend and don’t mind spending that money on the island. St. Barts comes to mind in the type of tourism we should be striving for. Having said that, we need to create an island and the facilities that these types of tourist demand.

People with money are very discriminating and we expect the best. Let’s strive to be the best and focus on getting them to visit and stay over.

the main problem is talk and no action in Dominica… and of course depending on politicians to change circumstances they’re all the same with their broken promises, as for taxes (different topic but w/e), if they REALLY wanted to help the economy do away with some of those NONSENSE TAXES charging people OVER 100% to clear things like WTH

I would like to ask the visitor whether he or she is going to visit a country when the Prime Minister of the country publicly refers to its own natives as bastards. He tells its natives to, “go to hell.” He calls its leaders human ticks. A Prime Minister, following many allegations, is accused of being one who lies, steals and cheats.

Keep doing UWP work for them, you brought that same report last year and I know so far the stay over has gone up so far, we know there’s a lot of work to be done and they are working on it. All the islands that you called ahead of DA were into that sector long before we could even think of it they have their white sandy beaches and flat lands, but we making our own paths the sad thing is when we get there you all will take you all sweet time to bring the news forward. Just like the 27 people that received their new homes. Oh and less we forget Linton did plagiarize Chastanet.

The CTO is right to give the evidence it has. However, tourists DECIDE where they want to go. No matter what anybody does or changes in the host country. Some like concrete and shopping in malls; some like buying duty free alcohol and jewelry; some like hiking; some like lazing in the sun and so on and so on. Some do not enjoy seeing the ugly contraptions that people who want them to purchase souvenirs have over their stalls. Many do not like to see vendors selling food and eating as they sell. There are many factors that encourage visitors to a country. Stop blaming one set of people.

@real possie…It’s not UWP’s work you daft!!!! It’s DOMINICAN or DOMINICA’s work!!!! UWP or DNO did not make the statistics. DNO simply reported on the statistics. No entity is perfect including the Government or DLP so why don’t people accept or acknowledge the shortcomings instead of living in DENIAL for so long.

And here is another educated Dominican more interested in a “Plagiarism” saga instead of focusing on REAL issue affecting the lives of DOMINICANs. … Riddle me this… after we (DOMINICANS) focus on the plagiarism and we cross that bridge, would it move us up the ladder based on the reports in the article? would we now have more arrivals? Nice try… On the contrary it seems more evident that the Plagiarism saga was designed to divert the nation’s attention… again, you DAFT!!!

This does not tell the whole story. If we look at the per-capita ratio of stay-over visitors, a small country like Anguilla outperforms all the three others with the lowest total number of stay-over visitors. Anguilla (pop. 15,000) – 4.6 Montserrat (pop. 6,000 – 1.2 Dominica (pop. 70,000) – 1.12 St. Vincent $ Grenadines ( pop. 100,000) – 0.72

On this basis Dominica comes only second from bottom and St. Vincent a surprisingly last. What would also be interesting in this equitation would be to compare the “spend” per capita by these visitors in these territories.

This is expected with Dominica as least visited island. Firstly, Dominica does not have international airport and yes, we are a progressive island. We need to develop more interested packages to intice visitors to the island. Dominica need an international airport. That should be the next agenda on the government list as a high priority.

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